In modern military applications, often laser guided munitions (e.g., laser guided artillery, laser guided missiles, laser guided bombs, etc.) are employed. The laser guided munitions can be designed such that when laser guided munitions are activated (e.g., fired) a controller and/or a sensor in the laser guided munitions tracks the location of a targeting laser spot and causes the laser guided munitions to move toward the targeting laser spot whether the target be stationary or moving.
Conventionally, the targeting laser is aligned with the target identifier such that when the target identifier is aligned on a target so is the targeting laser spot. However, difficulties exist for aligning the targeting laser with the targeting identifier. In most imaging systems, the spectral bandwidth of the imager is too narrow to detect both, an image of the target and the laser. For those systems where the spectral bandwidth of the imager might allow imaging the laser, interference caused by ambient light prevents an accurate detection of the laser when detecting an image of the target.
Accordingly, the alignment (of the imager and the laser) is often performed in a closed environment (e.g., a manufacturing facility or with an external instrument) using alignment structures. However, when the targeting system is mounted on a mobile unit (e.g., an aircraft, a boat, a vehicle, etc.) vibrations experienced by the targeting system during movement of the mobile unit, as well as changing temperatures of the environment can cause the laser and the imager to become misaligned.